Abstract

Tax rewards are an important and useful fiscal policy tool for governments and tax administrations to plan strategies to increase tax revenue. Nevertheless, there is little clear empirical evidence of a positive effect of tax rewards on tax compliance; rather, in some cases a negative effect is even found. Consequently, this study considers a tax reward in the simplest form of a “negative penalty” (positive amount of money) in case of no tax evasion, instead of no penalty (as in the standard model). By making the tax system fairer, this kind of tax reward can spur tax morale and, thus, tax compliance. Tax rewards, therefore, could trigger a virtuous circle for increasing tax revenue. A survey study in Italy substantiates the main prediction of the theoretical model.

摘要

税收奖励是政府和税务机关制定增加税收战略的重要且有用的财政政策工具。然而，几乎没有明确的经验证据表明税收奖励对税收合规产生积极影响；相反，在某些情况下甚至会发现负面影响。因此，本研究考虑在没有逃税的情况下以“负罚款”（正金额）的最简单形式的税收奖励，而不是没有罚款（如在标准模型中）。通过使税收制度更加公平，这种税收奖励可以刺激税收士气，从而提高税收合规性。因此，税收奖励可以引发增加税收的良性循环。意大利的一项调查研究证实了理论模型的主要预测。